The following is a summary of “Metabolic features of orbital adipose tissue in patients with thyroid eye disease,” published in the August 2023 issue of Ophthalmology by Du et al.
Thyroid eye disease (TED), characterized by bulging eyes due to excess orbital adipose tissue (OAT), remains a mystery regarding its metabolic drivers, hindering the development of non-surgical treatments for vision-threatening complications.
Researchers performed a retrospective study to analyze the metabolic profiles of orbital adipose tissue from TED patients, aiming to unlock the secrets within.
They obtained OATs from the orbital decompression surgery of seven patients with inactive TED and collected control OATs from eye surgical samples of 5 subjects with no history of autoimmune thyroid diseases, TED, or under non-inflammatory conditions. Targeted metabolites were measured using a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer. Differential metabolite assay analysis and related pathway enrichment analysis were performed.
The results showed 149 metabolite profiles with significant differences in various metabolite profiles between the TED group and the control group, including uric acid, oxidized glutathione, taurine, dGMP, oxidized glutathione 2, uracil, hexose-phosphate, 1-methyl nicotinamide, D-sedoheptulose 1,7-bisphosphate, and uridine 5′-monophosphate (all P-value < 0.05). TED-related pathways comprised purine metabolism, beta-alanine metabolism, and glutathione metabolism (P-values<0.05). Overlaps and differences, such as uric acid and uracil, were found, aligning with metabolites in previous blood studies of TED patients. New metabolites, including hexose-phosphate, 1-methyl nicotinamide, and D-sedoheptulose 1,7-bisphosphate, were identified compared to those tested in previous studies using blood, OAT, or urine samples.
They concluded that by revealing the metabolic secrets of TED’s orbital fat, the study paves the way for potential non-surgical therapies by identifying novel treatment targets.
Source: frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2023.1151757/full